The public health failing that flies under the radar

February 20, 2026 — 5:00am

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Lead poisoning in Broken Hill is a public health scandal that has received relatively little attention despite the ongoing threat to the lives of the town’s most vulnerable residents.

Now an independent scientific report has revealed half of all government-owned homes for Indigenous families in Broken Hill have high levels of lead contamination, and 23 per cent are at very high risk from lead contamination, raising concerns about the impact on children.

NSW Chief Scientist Hugh Durrant-Whyte said bringing down high levels of lead in the blood of Broken Hill’s children was “an urgent public health priority” after finding progress on the issue had slowed and many historic recommendations were not implemented.

“The purpose of this report is not to delay progress but to realign current efforts toward minimising community exposure to lead, particularly in children,” he wrote. “The development window from birth to 5 years old is critical and delays in effective intervention risks irreversible impairment and potential lifelong complications to successive generations.”

However, the Herald’s Angus Thomson has revealed that the public was still not being told the full story. Recommendations in earlier drafts suggesting relocation of childcare centres, playgrounds and schools at high risk of toxic metal exposure and consideration of dust reduction strategies “such as street sweepers and revegetation” were removed before publication.

Drafts made public through a parliamentary call for papers showed three of seven recommendations initially proposed by Durrant-Whyte’s office did not make the final report following consultation with the premier’s department and two other government departments. A spokesperson for the premier’s department said they did not request changes to recommendations.

The $150m solution to Broken Hill’s pollution crisis

It has been known for decades that many Broken Hill residents have been or are being poisoned partly as a legacy of the historic mining boom, yet NSW bureaucrats have shamefully delayed and fiddled with reports into the environmental and social disaster.

Just last September, documents released to state parliament showed how mining companies advised public health authorities against contacting workers with blood lead levels above the threshold for medical intervention due to concerns about the anxiety it could cause, preferring to take communications into their own hands. This effectively blocked public health authorities from contacting these workers.

In another questionable decision, NSW government bureaucrats delayed the release of a critical 2019 scientific report until November 2023, despite the finding that two mines in Broken Hill were contributing to elevated blood lead levels in Indigenous children.

Plan to protect children from toxic metals erased from NSW government report

Eighteen months ago, we published statistics revealing two-thirds of Indigenous children aged between one and five in Broken Hill had blood lead levels higher than the national guideline. Since 2015, taxpayers have spent more than $13 million managing the lead issue there, but the average blood lead level for these children has stayed above the national guideline for most of the decade.

The disproportionate exposure of Indigenous children to continuing lead pollution and widespread contamination affecting First Nations households are the horrific failures of years of government health policies.

Other communities would not tolerate such treatment. Neither should Broken Hill. The town needs help and urgently.

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© The Sydney Morning Herald